Vanessa Barnett, commercial lawyer, Charles Russell Digital impact conference www.charitycomms.org.uk/events

1. 5 THINGS
What every charity should
know about social media
Vanessa Barnett
Partner, TMT
@vanessabarnett

3. THE LAW (AND OTHER STUFF)
 Mostly old laws, with a bit of the new
 Four key areas of law:
 Intellectual property
 Data protection/privacy
 Defamation/contempt
 Employment
 One key set of terms and conditions (well, sort of)
 Social media platform T+Cs

4. ONE – RESPECT MY AUTHORITY
(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)

5. http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/shared/downloads/images/season-14/1403/1403_cartmanJunkieA.jpg

6. Flikr attribution:
naixn

7. Flikr attribution:
grendelkhan

8. Flickr attribution:
p_a_h

9. Getting the right rights in
 Creating new content
 Commercial production
 Assignment always
preferable!
 User generated content
 Assignment unlikely, but very
wide licence
 Employees/consultants
 Using existing third party
content
 Commercial licence
 Content libraries
 Creative Commons
 Be careful licence rights
wide enough
 Exclusive/non-exclusive
 Territory
 Media
 Devices
 Language

10. Copyright myths
 Everything on the Internet is in the public domain, so I can use it
 No, only stuff where copyright has actually expired is in the public domain
 If there’s no copyright notice, I can use it
 No, no notice is needed to get copyright, it just arises and the creators are
protected – notices, these days, are for information
 If I change it, I have not made a copy, so I can use it
 No, that’s still a copy which has been derived from the original, so still an
infringing copy
 If I just copy part of it, it’s not a copy, so I can use it
 No, because a copy can be the whole or a substantial part (and that’s
qualitative – think of the Mona Lisa smile!)
 If I don’t make any money out of it, it’s not commercial, so it’s
permitted
 No, the exceptions which allow use of copyright works without permission
are very narrow (e.g. research, private study, news reporting, etc)

11. The „right‟ to „share‟

12. TWO – DON‟T BE A DATA
DUFFUS

14. Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations
 Need a positive indication of consent – but that doesn‟t
automatically mean a tick box
 Directive defines „the data subject‟s consent‟ as:
„any freely given specific and informed indication of his wishes by
which the data subject signifies his agreement to personal data
relating to him being processed‟
 ICO read this as some form of communication where the
individual knowingly indicates consent, saying:
“This may involve clicking an icon, sending an email or subscribing to
a service. The crucial consideration is that the individual must fully
understand that by the action in question they will be giving consent.”

15. The „soft‟ opt in – how far can you
stretch it?
 PECR say no need for consent if:
 Obtained details from the intended recipient in the context of a sale
or negotiations for the sale of a product or service AND
 The marketing relates to sender‟s own/similar products or services
AND
 The recipient is given a simple means of refusing the
communications (but an opt-out or otherwise) at data collection and
on every subsequent communication
 So careful with mailing list purchases too!

16. All boils down to this
Tell people what
you are doing with
personal data
Do what you have
told them!

17. THREE – NO SUCH THING
AS #INNOCENT

18. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00320/102030342_Paul_Cham_320099c.jp
g

19. Paul Chambers

20. Sally Bercow
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/twitter-libel-sally-bercow-says-she-has-learned-
the-hard-way-as-she-settles-with-tory-peer-lord-mcalpine-over-libellous-tweet-8630653.html

21. Jordan

24. #ad #spon
 Disclosure of paid promotions or endorsements
 Use ‘#ad’ hashtag or #spon if someone has been paid to
promote your charity
 The position of charity „ambassadors‟ is unclear

25. FOUR – WE ARE ALL IN IT
TOGETHER (UNFORTUNATELY!)

26. Responsibility for employees

27. FIVE – DON‟T FORGET THE
CONTRACT STUFF

28. Common themes for social media
platform T+Cs
 Don‟t spam
 Don‟t bully, intimidate or harrass
 No nudity or pornographic content
 Don‟t infringe or violate rights of third parties (including
copyright!)
 Don‟t publish confidential stuff
 Don‟t associate with us
 Get logos right
simples

29. Facebook specifics
 Promotions
 Facebook Promotions Guidelines – keep it legal and if any
‘gambling’ element, need consent from Facebook
 Ads
 Facebook Pages Terms
 Relevant and appropriate for audience
 Appropriately targeted!
 Data
 Get consent and be transparent
 Cannot use for purpose outside of consents
 No tagging without consent!

30. Twitter specifics
 Don‟t send unsolicited @ replies or mentions
 When you post something on Twitter you grant Twitter a
licence to do what it wants with your content!
 Promoted tweets must be appropriately targeted, comply with
all applicable laws and regulations, and accurately reflect
your brand
 Remember @[your charity] will be responsible for all
promoted content on Twitter on its behalf

31. FINALLY

33. THANK YOU